Madison River Brewing Company in Belgrade, MT

Well its been a while here since I have tried my hand at a review, but I’m back on the bandwagon and have quite the beer to talk about today. None other than Madison River’s Lime Saison. I wish that link to their website was more helpful, but it seems they haven’t updated their website since late 2008! You’ll only be able to check out their four main brews there and see a picture of the taproom, if you are looking for anything else, you may just have to stop in yourself. While you are there, you can check out their sweet mug club, with hand-blown glass mugs from Townsend. I was in there in early March, and they have a charming little taproom with friendly and helpful staff, and plenty of locals. I first tried the Lime Saison back then, and found it to be a rather intriguing beer: a tasty farmhouse ale with hints of lime (or maybe that was my imagination). We recently cracked open a growler of said beer that Steffen picked up last week, and it wasn’t at all what I remembered.

The picture doesn’t really help you all with the color, but it is a new growler Steffen picked up, so I thought it was worth putting up. The Lime Saison poured a clean sapphire flower honey color with a large white head, appearing perfect to kick off the summer beer season. The European origins of the beer were very apparent in the nose which was fruity, spicy, and heavily yeasty with just a touch of lime towards the end. Not quite what I had remembered, and I suspect it may be a different batch of the brew. Both the nose and the flavor were more limy a month and a half ago, and at the time they had mentioned adding even more lime. The flavor profile followed a traditional saison fairly well. Medium bodied with lots of small carbonation bubbles, it was spicy and bittersweet, almost more on the tart side, with just a hint of lime coming through at the end. Its a pretty big beer, right around 7.2% ABV if my memory serves me right, and some of that heat definitely come out in the flavor.

Overall, I was impressed, though more impressed the first time, and I have to hand it to the guys over at Madison River for taking on the challenge of brewing such a complex beer for palates that are not necessarily used to this style. Although we have seen many more yeasty beers appearing around Montana, such as Blackfoot’s new Belgian Abbey Ale. If you happen to be passing through Belgrade, perhaps on your way back from Chico, or just traveling across the state, stop in and check out the taproom at Madison River Brewing. It has great character, and not only is the Lime Saison on tap, but I also hear there is still some of the Hopjuice, a big IPA with lots of grapefruit character and a boozy kick!